Mums

[steelnut]

Questions, are mums annuals or perennials?

I've heard arguments for both sides.

[gypsywannabe]

THE ONES LABELED AS "HARDY" ARE SUPPOSEDLY PERENNIAL. I HAVE never HAD ONE WINTER OVER BUT HAVE SEEN OTHER GARDENS WITH mums that obviously have been there for years.

[Petee]

They're perennial depending on which zone they are planted in.  Here in Zone 5 they will overwinter if they are somewhat protected or in a warm pocket.  

 

I have never had them overwinter at my home which is about 10 degrees colder than downtown DuBois because we are on a high windy area.  However, they overwintered at the Historical Society in the downtown for several years.  

 

http://gardening.about.com/od/maintenance/qt/HardyMums.htm?iam=momma_100_SKD&terms=%22Mums%22

[lavender]

To overwinter in our area it is very important that mums have good drainage. I can't overwinter them in my clay soil but they come through the winter just fine on the bank that was built to raise my green house. It is mostly fill. I'm in a cold pocket here being at the foot of a hill.

The mums in the garden across from Harley Davidson have come through year after year but only the ones at the top of the garden. The ones I put in last year at the foot did not do as well. Only one out of 6 or 7 made it through the winter. Better drainage on the slope or just more protected at the top? Who knows?

[Guest snellma]

Mums don't especially do good here in SC either.  They come back every year but they bloom long before Fall.  I even tried pinching off the blooms early, but that didn't even help.

[lavender]

Do you think cutting them back when they reach their full growth  would work? To get that bushel basket shape on mums and asters they do prune them back. I suppose this might deplete them after a few years but I've been cutting back a number of perennials severely after they bloom because they look so messy. It hasn't killed anything so far.

Odds are though nothing is going to work. Your weather is just too warm for them to bloom later.

[Guest snellma]

Odds are though nothing is going to work. Your weather is just too warm for them to bloom later.

My thoughts exactly.  People use them all the time but they just use them in the pots and then toss them after they are done blooming.  I can't through anything away.

[lavender]

I know the feeling. Scraggly poinsettias that hang on until they are nothing but two leaves.

[Guest snellma]

Someone here in Charleston has a poinsettia that grows outside in front of their house.  I was so amazed the first time I saw it.  I drove by the house yesterday and it is still there although it needed watered badly (I think the house is empty at the moment).  I may try it sometime.

[lavender]

I'm always amazed when I go south or west and see what are houseplants to us growing outside to enormous size. The first time I saw a Norfolk Island pine grown to full size my jaw dropped. Also saw a monkey puzzle tree once in Arizona that was bigger than I am. Saw philodendrons growing wild under the bridges in Fla. Good thing my husband won't let me drive or that car would be stopping every few miles.

[mananna59]

I have two nice size Mums but when I planted them I had one white and one yellow. They both have grown nice and full looking but no they are both white. The same thing happened to my tall pholx. I used to have purple and white and now they are all white. What the hey? Any ideas? Can I get the colors to come back?

[lavender]

With the phlox it is reseeding. You don't have the same plant but the off spring of the old plants which may not always come the same color as the parents.

 

The mums are harder to explain. It is not usual for plants to change color. It only happens in very unusual circumstances because of viruses or mutations (sporting). If you are remembering correctly what may have happened is that the yellow plant was not as hardy or healthy as the white one and it died over the winter. There may have been the start of a white plant in the yellow plant (happens when plants are field grown or when seedlings or cuttings are potted up) which did survive or the white one may have spread depending on how close they were together.

Some flowers do turn color as they age but you are apparently saying that the buds do not ever come out yellow.

 

[mananna59]

Right , both bushes one on each side of my fish pond. I bought at the same time from the same greenhouse. I thought maybe something in the soil , the earth around my garden is clay like. But the soil I plant in is a dark heavy top soil with lots of horse manure. I was also wondering if I could split my mums befor they get blooming and thin them out and plant them in more places? or is that something I should wait and do either after they bloom ,later this fall or wait until next spring?

[lavender]

You can divide plants in the spring or in the fall. Personally I'd wait until spring to divide the mums because they bloom so late and I think that is what is generally recommended. If you divide in the fall wait until after they bloom or they probably won't bloom. Just dig them up and cut into as many pieces as you feel will make nice sized plants.

[mananna59]

thanks  lavender, I always like to think what the answer might be and see how close I come to the right one. Sometimes I am so far off it's a wonder I have a green thing living.LOL , Wait till they are done blooming it is.

[lavender]

Plants are very forgiving, at least some of them. I've hacked daylilies out of the ground when they were in bloom, shoved them in somewhere else and never had them miss a bloom. Mums are more of a problem because they are so borderline around here. You never know when they are going to die on you over the winter.